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| India-Pakistan |
| US ready to take additional measures to eradicate Al Qaeda from Pakistan |
| 2007-07-23 |
| The US will consider the use of military force, if necessary, to stem Al Qaeda’s growing ability to use its hideout in Pakistan to launch terrorist attacks, a White House aide said on Sunday. US President George W Bush’s homeland security advisor Frances Fragos Townsend said the US was committed, first and foremost, to working with President General Pervez Musharraf in his efforts to control militants in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region. But, she indicated the US was ready to take additional measures. “Just because we don’t speak about things publicly doesn’t mean we’re not doing things you talk about,” Townsend told interviewers on ‘Fox News Sunday’ and ‘Late Edition’ on CNN when asked why the US does not conduct special operations and other measures to cripple Al Qaeda. “Job No 1 is to protect the American people. There are no options off the table,” she said. In the National Intelligence Estimate released last week, analysts stressed the importance of Al Qaeda’s increasingly comfortable hideout in Pakistan that has resulted from a hands-off accord between Musharraf and tribal leaders along the Afghan border. That 10-month-old deal, which unravelled recently, gave Al Qaeda new opportunities to set up compounds for terror training, improve its international communications with associates and bolster its operations. Since then, US officials have said they expect Pakistan to launch more military strikes on Islamic militants while the Bush administration pumps hundreds of millions of dollars in development aid into lawless tribal regions to fight extremism. “We should also be clear that we believe Pakistan has been a very good ally in the war on terrorism,” she said. “Musharraf has been the subject of numerous assassination attempts. Al Qaeda is trying to kill him. They get what the problem is. And we’re working with them to deny Al Qaeda and the Taliban their safe haven.” |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 No havens can be allowed for AQ evil spawn to exist. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2007-07-23 16:52 |